A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Berat Albayrak, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Turkey, took place today in Istanbul.

The parties reached an agreement on the earliest possible completion of the procedure for issuing authorizations required to launch the TurkStream project. The commercial negotiations on Russian gas supplies to Turkey will continue. In addition, the meeting participants discussed the main aspects of regional cooperation in the energy sector.

Background

On December 1, 2014, Gazprom and Turkey's Botas signed the Memorandum of Understanding on constructing the TurkStream gas pipeline. The pipeline will run 660 kilometers along the old route of South Stream and cover 250 kilometers of a new route toward the European part of Turkey. It is planned that the first gas pipeline string will be used exclusively for gas supplies to the Turkish market.

The South Stream project provided for the construction of a gas pipeline heading to Southern and Central Europe across the Black Sea.